Weapons
At present (beta v.0.14) the following guns are are available in the following categories with the following shell types. Weapon Types There are two basic types of weapon travel, and two modifiers to those. Bullet This type of weapon is a typically small caliber weapon in which the flight of the round is straight (unaffected by gravity) for the duration of its usually short range. Bullets do increased damage to balloons. Shell This type of weapon is a typically high caliber weapon in which the flight of the round is curved (affected by gravity) for the duration of its range. Flame Weapons with this modifier or weapons using the Incendiary Rounds weapon mod can deal this extra kind of damage, Fire 'stacks' on subsystems, dealing damage over time and preventing repairs until it's extinguished. Guns cannot be used while on fire, but all other components continue to operate as normal. Explosive Weapons with this modifier deal damage to an area, useful for hitting multiple guns on a gun deck or nearby subsystems such as engines all at once. also weapons with burst rounds? Medium Guns Medium Carronade Bullet type - Short-Medium Range A large double-barrelled shotgun type weapon, this gun fires a devastating scatter burst of red-hot scrap metal shards. The shards travel only for a relatively short distance, and aren't especially effective against hull armour (though the sheer number of shards fired by this weapon means it still does significant damage). This weapon is quite powerful against the otherwise quite resilient balloon on an airship. This gun fires both barrels simultaneously and immediately needs to reload, which means it greatly benefits from the reload spring mod. Medium Flak Shell type - Explosive modifier - Long Range A large, double-barrelled artillery type weapon, this gun fires overwhelmingly powerful, fast, accurate and long-range shots. Combined with the muzzle booster mod to further improve accuracy and range, this is the weapon of choice for long-range engagements on ships that can mount it, and indeed ships than can mount it often base their entire combat tactics around keeping these cannons pointed at the other ship. Hwacha Explosive type - Medium Range A large weapon capable of launching barrages of 20 rockets over a very short duration. Each rocket only does light explosive damage (meaning each rocket can hit multiple components at once). While the rockets fly fairly far, the Hwacha's bad accuracy makes it more suitable as a method of area denial when used from medium range. The Hwacha has the longest reload time of all guns, but makes up for it with its powerful offensive capabillities in short to medium range. Small Guns Carronade Bullet type - Short Range A single-barrelled version of the medium carronade, this gun fires several shots in fairly rapid succession before needing to reload unlike its larger cousin but still heavily benefits from the recoil spring. As with the larger version, it's highly effective against the balloon and not particularly against hull (although again, the sheer numbers of hits and the spread on the weapon can mean a busy time for the poor receiving ship's engineer). Short range only, though the muzzle booster can give more experienced captains a nasty surprise when they realise they're not out of range after all. Gatling Gun Bullet type - Short-Medium Range A high fire-rate medium range gun with reasonable accuracy at short to mid ranges, this gun is used to harass and chip away at an enemy while being moderately effective against both hull and balloon. The Gatling gun is probably the easiest gun to use for a new player or one who doesn't usually use guns. Mercury Field Gun Bullet type - Explosive Modifier - Extreme Long Range Although initially appearing to be a shell-type weapon and sharing a lot in common with those weapons, this weapon seems to be unaffected by gravity unlike its shell-type relatives. Combining a massive range (the largest in the game) with a ridiculously fast shell speed and a scope makes this a great weapon for harassing an opponent from a great distance. A slow firing rate (almost 2 seconds between shots) means that this gun is good only for fire support or long ranged marksmanship and not so good at damage per second. Portable Flak Cannon Shell type - Medium-Long Range The smaller brother of the Medium Flak Cannon, this gun carries four shots before reloading and fires quite rapidly, though the long reload time means it appreciates the recoil spring mod as much as its larger brother. From a range, this makes a good choice to outfit with a muzzle booster (which brings it up to nearly long range and makes hitting easier). The combination of good mid-range accuracy and good DPS makes this a popular choice with gunners. Mortar Slow Shell type - Explosive - Short-Medium Range A high fire-rate weapon that fires slow, deep arcing explosive projectiles. Very difficult to use for an inexperienced player, the moderate DPS, explosion area and ugly vision blocking black clouds of the mortar make it popular amongst experienced crews as a harassment or closing range weapon before carronades can be brought to bear. Rocket Launcher Slow Bullet type - Explosive - Short-Medium Range Another high fire-rate medium range launcher, this time with no arc and poor accuracy which makes it much easier to use as a detterent, smokescreen or in a similar fashion to the mortar. Essentially fills the same niche as the mortar but does less damage (with the exception of being able to put a smokescreen between you and your opponent by simply shooting at an out of distance ship), so rarely sees use except by captains expecting inexperienced crews or captains using it to harass rather than damage an opponent. Missile Sling Bullet type - Explosive - Long Range A slow fire rate weapon with good range and damage output along with lots of explosion damage and excellent damage, this one is a popular closing weapon. This weapon is sometimes used by crews as a standoff weapon much like the medium flak or howitzer by equipping the missile with a muzzle booster mod to greatly increase the missile's speed. Micro Flamethrower Fire type - Fire - Extreme Close Range A very rapid-fire low damage weapon which has a couple of unique qualities. It travels straight for a short distance, like a bullet type, but it passes around/through an enemy ship damaging anything it hits with a good chance of setting things on fire (as you might expect). This weapon is often found in solitary mounts on a weak side, and is typically used to delay an enemy assault for a few seconds as it can allow a ship the time it needs to bring its main gun side to bear. As effective as it is defensively, it is often used offensively (though again, usually on an off-side) although to use it as a primary tool in an attack tactic requires a very aggressively flown ship. Crank Harpoon Shell Type - Explosive - Short Range Another weapon with a unique application, this is used to attach another ship to your own, though without the muzzle booster mod is a very difficult weapon to hit with indeed. It doesn't do much damage, so it's only really useful on vessels which have multiple same-facing slots like the junker or pyramidion, with the second slot armed with a carronade or flamethrower. Very rarely seen, as the niche of usefulness is very narrow when it could be another damage dealing weapon there. Best used to try to hold an enemy blindspot facing you, as if you hold one of their armed sides facing you, you're likely to be a gun down due to using the harpoon slot and worse off than the ship you've hit. Flare Gun Bullet type - Fire - Long Range The final unique weapon currently available, this weapon does a very small amount of damage to an enemy ship and may start a fire, but is primarily used for lighting up clouds. When fired into a cloud, it will begin to emit a green light which will sillhouette ships trying to hide there. Like with the harpoon, the niche application of this weapon means that people will almost always choose to use a gun in a slot instead, preferring to fire into the cloud with guesswork and hope to see damage indicators than lose the firepower just to pinpoint an enemy exactly. Airship Yes, the ship itself can be used as a viable (but risky) weapon. If a captain has closed on an enemy from their blindspot as they approach at speed, they'll often prefer to hit the enemy directly with the ship rather than allow their opponent to bring their guns to bear. In some cases, instead of opportunism or desperation a ship captain will make ramming an integral part of an attack tactic by selecting pilot mods like kerosene or moonshine for a boost of speed combined with impact bumpers just before collision to reduce the damage they sustain themselves. section needs more playtesting to be certain of the difference, it seems unpredictable so far Direct Collision In this case a pilot will attempt to ram their ships body into that of their opponent. Usually this strategy will only be employed if your vessel has inflicted heavy balloon damage on the enemy ship and this is a way of trying to finish that off so they'll fall, but sometimes it's a matter of practicality against an opponent who you thing may try to rise or sink to avoid the collision. Balloon Collision Your ships balloon, unlike the hull, can be repaired completely even if utterly destroyed with no long term effects (unless it causes the ship to fall until it hits the ground and damages the hull anyway, that is). For this reason, pilots will often prefer to have their balloon hit the enemy ship for the chance of doing permanent damage to their hull, in addition to using it as a partial shield for their approach while they pepper the enemy underbelly.